There is a demand for the development of a hair cosmetic composition having a high conditioning effect because hair is prone to damage from chemical treatments such as coloring and permanent waving.
As a hair cosmetic composition having a high conditioning effect, there is conventionally known a hair cosmetic composition containing a polyoxyalkylene compound obtained by the addition polymerization of an alkylene oxide to a monohydric or polyhydric alcohol, and a crosslinking type polyacrylic acid polymer. It is the composition developed with a view to enhancing hair styling power, giving moisture to the hair, and providing moisturized, supple, and non-sticky hair (Patent Document 1).
There is also known a hair cosmetic composition containing an alkyl polyalkylene glycol ether, a cationic surfactant, and a fatty acid having a C12-40 alkyl or alkenyl group. It is the composition developed with a view to improving the touch feeling of the damaged hair without giving stickiness or oily feeling to the hair (Patent Document 2).
Further, there is a report on a cosmetic composition to be used for the preparation of a dyeing or bleaching composition of keratin fibers. It contains (a) from 14 to 50% of a mixture of nonionic surfactants selected from linear or branched oxyethylenated and/or oxypropylenated and/or polyglycerolated fatty alcohols, the mixture being containing, at a predetermined proportion, at least one surfactant A with an HLB value not less than 14 according to the Griffin scale and a nonionic surfactant B with an HLB value not less than 1 but less than 10 according to the Griffin scale; and (b) from 0.05 to 10% of a cationic or amphoteric substantive polymer (Patent Document 3).
It is however impossible to satisfactorily prevent hair damage upon chemical treatments such as coloring or permanent waving.
On the other hand, it is disclosed that a detergent composition containing the following components (i) and (ii):
(i) a compound represented by the following formula (i):R1O—(PO)n(EO)m—R2  (i)wherein R1 represents a linear or branched C8-12 alkyl or alkenyl group, PO represents a propyleneoxy group, EO represents an ethylene oxy group, n means an average addition mole number and is from 1.5 to 3.0, m means an average addition mole number and is from 0 to 1.0, and R2 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, wherein the content of an alcohol represented by the formula (i) with n being 0, m being 0 and R2 being a hydrogen atom is 3000 ppm or less, and (ii) a surfactant other than the component (i) is excellent in a foaming property (Patent Document 4).